TO THE END OF TIME: THE SEDUCTION AND CONQUEST OF A MEDIA EMPIRE by Richard M. Clurman; Simon & Schuster; 368 pages; $23

The deal to top all deals -- and perhaps the last of them -- in the mad decade of corporate takeovers and mergers was the betrothal on March 4, 1989, of Time Inc., one of the world's most influential magazine- and book- publishing companies, to Warner Communications, the flashy, crap-shooting entertainment conglomerate whose dowry included a major movie studio, Madonna, Batman, Bugs Bunny and Alfred E. ("What -- Me Worry?") Neuman of Mad. After an unfriendly suitor (Paramount...